Democrats take control of the House

CONCORD - House Speaker William O'Brien won reelection to the House, but he will not be reelected as speaker as Democrats appear to have a majority in the lower chamber.

Former House Speaker Terie Norelli, D-Portsmouth, said Democrats currently won 217 seats, Republican 177 with six races still not decided.

'I always thought we had an outside chance of taking back the majority,' she said this morning. 'Whether or not it happened . . . would depend a little bit on the coattails from the top of the ticket.'

Norelli and Nashua Rep. David Campbell are expected to seek the Democratic nomination to be speaker in their caucus which is scheduled for Nov. 17.

The Republican caucus is scheduled for Nov. 15.

O'Brien finished second in the race for two seats representing the towns of Mont Vernon and New Boston.

Democrat David Woodbury was the top vote getter with 2,263, while O'Brien had 2,110. Democrat Kary Jencks had 2,043 votes and former House Chief of Staff Bob Mead had 1,913.

According to unofficial counts, between 210 and 220 Democrats were elected to the House Tuesday. Official results will not be available until late today or early tomorrow.

Democrats controlled the House for four years from 2006 to 2010 until the Republican landslide in 2010 swept in nearly 300 GOP lawmakers.

Until 2006, Republicans had controlled the House for more than 80 years.

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